Data-centre requests equal 11.6% of Selangor’s water output, Air Selangor tells IWA congress

Requests from data centres for water in Selangor now add up to 634 million litres a day — 11.6% of the average production capacity of the utility that serves Malaysia’s economic heartland — Air Selangor told the IWA World Water Congress in Glasgow.

Ir. Azlan Abdullah, head of production at Pengurusan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd, said data-centre applications since 2020 were a different kind of demand from the industry the utility has planned for in the past. “It is quite a challenge, especially when it comes to data centers, because when it comes in, it comes in bulk,” he said. “It comes in large quantity and at a very smaller time frame.”

His slides broke the total down into 60 approved applications worth 276 million litres a day (MLD), eight committed at 148 MLD and 11 at pre-consultation stage at 210 MLD.

A utility the economy depends on

Air Selangor supplies more than 9.7 million people — about 2.8 million accounts — across Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya from 34 treatment plants, eight dams and almost 32,000 km of pipeline. The region generates about 40% of Malaysia’s GDP, and Azlan said reliable supply decides where investors go: “investment would not come in if we cannot provide the services.”

The utility produces about 5,400 MLD today and expects to need close to 10,000 MLD within 30 years. It aims to keep a reserve margin of 10–15% above demand, so that sudden requests and planned plant shutdowns for asset work do not put customers at risk.

Building ever-bigger treatment plants and longer pipelines is no longer enough on its own, Azlan said, as raw water becomes scarcer and its quality more variable: “We have to look at how can we allocate water sustainably while maintaining resilience for future generation.”

Fit-for-purpose water for industry

Air Selangor’s answer rests on four strands: deciding with the state government and local authorities which applications the network can serve, cutting non-revenue water, encouraging more water-efficient cooling with the power company and NGOs, and switching industry to alternative sources. “We provide potable water, drinkable water, but now we are looking at how can we provide water for industry,” he said.

Its joint venture with the national sewerage operator Indah Water Konsortium, Central Water Reclamation, treats effluent from sewage treatment plants and sells it to industry. Azlan said it has so far saved about 3.3 MLD of drinking water — “It is a start” — and that two more reclamation plants are being built to supply areas where data centres will need water.

For established urban areas where large new plants are impractical, the utility is looking at smaller decentralised plants under build-operate-transfer partnerships with private companies. He said development is funded from internal cash, sukuk — including a Blue Sukuk — and through Pengurusan Aset Air Berhad, the Ministry of Finance company that funds water assets through ownership and leasing.

Asked from the floor about the water footprint of power for data centres, Azlan said Malaysia’s electricity comes mostly from combined-cycle gas and hydropower, with coal being phased out, and that most power stations sit near the coast and use seawater for cooling.

Context

In August, Selangor state officials put the state’s treated-water reserve at about 1,055 MLD and projected data-centre demand at about 632 MLD, according to Malay Mail. Air Selangor has charged data centres a dedicated tariff of RM5.31 per cubic metre since 1 September 2025. Malaysia’s profile in the water sector will rise further when Kuching, Sarawak, hosts the IWA World Water Congress & Exhibition in 2028.

Recorded at Business Forum Theatre 2, IWA World Water Congress & Exhibition, Glasgow, 6 October 2026.

Written with AI assistance from the session recording and the cited sources. Every quotation was checked against the recording; filler words and repetitions were removed.